Where Have all the Churches Gone?
I recently received an Advanced Reader Copy of The Vanishing Church, by Ryan Burge. Burge writes from a unique perspective. He is a political scientist and statistician who focuses his research on the impact of religion on American life, especially politics. He currently teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. A lifelong Christian, he is also a former local church pastor in the American Baptist Church.
The subtitle of his book is “How the Hollowing Out of Moderate Congregations is Hurting Democracy, Faith, and Us.”
Anyone who follows the decline of mainline Protestantism will not be surprised at the graphs Burge shares. A few facts did surprise me, however. The percentage of Americans who identify as evangelicals actually peaked in 1993. (Clearly, their influence did not peak then.) Burge also predicts that white American Catholicism will rapidly grow more conservative; the overwhelmingly majority of newly-ordained priests identify as conservative.
Burge’s observations, his analysis of survey data, lead him to these conclusions. Politics has influenced religion much more than religion has impacted politics. So, beginning with the Gingrich era, as compromise has become a dirty word in politics, as polarization has increased, American religious life has been affected. By and large, those who identify as conservative Republicans have gravitated towards evangelical churches. Those who identify as liberal Democrats have begun describing themselves as religiously unaffiliated. The moderate church has all but disappeared.
There was a time when Republicans and Democrats worshiped in the same pew, in the same midwestern small town United Methodist Church, for example. That church (and those like them) attracted those across the socioeconomic spectrum, people of different educational backgrounds. The local mainline Protestant church, then, was a place where people practiced listening to one another, learning from each other. People developed empathy; the social fabric was woven together more tightly. Without those churches (and all mainline Protestant denominations are rapidly declining), the polarization just becomes worse.
Burge does not just write as a social scientist. He writes as someone who has spent his life in both the pew and behind the pulpit. He loves the transforming possibility of the local church. But he is not prescriptive - that’s not his aim. Neither does he dive into all of the “why” questions…and this is where I’m really curious. Mainline Protestant Christianity used to be the largest and most influential religious tradition in the United States. What happened? Did we rest on our laurels? Did we become lazy about creating meaningful relevant worship experiences? Did we stop funding vital youth ministry programs and church camps? Burge asserts that "the strongest predictor of your current religion is the religion in which you are raised." So what happened to youth who were raised in mainline Protestant churches?
If there are, as this book contends, progressives who would like to be aligned with a congregation, then why aren’t more liberal churches growing? There certainly are many congregations whose progressive views are well-advertised. Here Burge’s suggestion is a bit confusing (and may be controversial to some of my colleagues!): “Probably the best thing people of faith can do is make sure they don’t lead with or emphasize the political ramifications of their religious affiliation. Noting that one’s church runs an effective clothing ministry or does a great job of tutoring students in an afterschool program reminds others that houses of worship aren’t just weekly Republican Party meetings…younger people are increasingly blank slates when it comes to their understanding of what religious groups do and do not do. Even in environments where politics and religion are highly divisive, people tend to admire others - even those they disagree with on some political issues - who are truly driven by their faith to live lives of character, integrity, and service.”
A thought-provoking book. I hope many people read it and engage with it; I look forward to being part of an ongoing conversation.